Introduction
Aegeus was king of Athens, long without an heir until he fathered Theseus with Aethra during a visit to Troezen. He left a sword and sandals under a great boulder as tokens for his unborn son.
Family
The Black Sails
Aegeus arranged with Theseus that his ship would fly white sails on its return from Crete if the mission against the Minotaur succeeded, black if it failed. Theseus forgot to change the sails; seeing them still black, Aegeus, believing his son dead, threw himself from a cliff into the sea, thereafter called the Aegean in his memory.
As with all figures of Greek heroic legend, sources diverge on many particulars; the account above follows the most widely transmitted classical tradition.